What is the deal with Act II scene II?

[jillianb02]

When I read Act II scene II I though it was the best part I had read so far. It dives deeper into the characters' personalities and helps the reader understand some of Abigail's beliefs. What I found most interesting about her conversation with Proctor is that she seems to really believe what she is doing. I originally thought she knew she was being ridiculous, but got a kick out of being able to send people to their death. Now I understand that she must be a bit crazy in the head. No sane person would stab herself with a needle, claim that someone else had done it, and then actually believe it.
Abigail says she cannot wait for George Jacobs to die, he was causing her so much pain. She pulls up her stockings and reveals beaten and stabbed legs. I saw this moment as the point at which the audience no longer sees her as a child looking for a way out of trouble.
I was wondering why the author would chose to drop this scene. It seemed to be quite important in understanding the characters' reasons for their actions. (My only theory is that these reasons become evident later on in the play).
Did anyone else wonder why the scene was cut, and more importantly, wonder what the scene told us about the protagonist?

[taylorm07]

I don't believe that Abigail is going crazy. I believe that she is just someone who will do anything to stay out of trouble and maintain the "Marcia Brady" reputation of the town. She does not want to be punished, and, due to the rhetoric of consensus at the time, there were incubi, succubi, and all sorts of witchcraft that could affect somebody. Abigail is a smart girl, and, when she realizes that there is some way to get out of owning up to her actions, she takes the easier route. I can't really blame her (at first). I mean, who wants to be beaten for dancing? But Abigail has realized that she can take her revenge along the way. It has already been revealed in Act I that Abigail and Proctor had an affair and that she wanted Goody Proctor gone. Proctor refused, knowing that at the present time she could do nothing about it. After all of the wild accusations were made, Abby began to realize that she has power in the village, and she, in telling Proctor what she does, proves that she can attack his wife. George Jacobs is another person whom she wishes gone. Even if it requires extreame measures, Abigail will take them for the growing power and attention she is recieving.
Miller could possibly have cut this scene out for time reasons, or possibly this didn't play out that well onstage, and was only ment for the written version.

[laurenf02]

I agree with taylor. I think that being a young girl in such an uptight society would be difficult. Compared to girls to today, we would have all been hung by now. Girls today laugh and dance, party and play. To be a girl in that kind of society could turn into quite a task as one had to maintain a respectable reputation and follow the belief system of their people, the rhetoric of consensus. As it turns out Abigail turns to the tyranny of consensus the moment upon which she starts to blame innocent others of having been involved with her dancing. in some ways she is a good person, yet deep down there is a darker side to her evil innocence.

[melissas2]

To what Jillian says about Abigail starting to believe her own lies, I completley agree. This scene shows how Abby becomes almost deluded with her own power, and maybe the more carried away she got, she developed a reasoning to justify her actions and to ease any guilt or remorse she felt. If everyone is agreeing with you and believing your lies, it is quite easy to start believing them yourself. I'm not saying that Abby was unconscious of her actions, because there is always that underlying calculation on her part, but there is something to be said for becoming mad with power. However, one intriguing part was when Abigail calls the Puritans of the town hypocrites (150) and that God gave her the strength to call them liars, and it seems that she genuinely feels like a martyr. Its also interesting because Miller says that Proctor also hated hypocites and he himself was one, and perhaps Abigail had a built up frustration with the Puritan community's constant preaching of perfect morality, and the fact that they were all humans with faults that they tried to deny and repress.

[meredithc07]

I agree with Jillian that this scene allows us to see deeper into the personalities of Proctor and Abigail. I do not think Miller should have left it out because it is during this scene that Abby’s jealousy toward Goody Proctor becomes most evident. After Proctor rejects her, she even goes as far as to call Goody Proctor his “sniveling, envious wife (Miller 151),” out of frustration. Through statements such as those, this scene gains importance because it also gives the reader a true sense of Abigail’s state of mind. It becomes clear through this part of the play that Abby is not mentally stable and, like Melissa said, begins to believe her own lies.

[sophied02]

After reading Act II, Scene 2 i got the feeling that Miller didn't include it in other editions of the play or in its live performances in the theater because it took away the element of surprise on behalf of Abby's actions. In this scene Proctor tells Abby what he is going to confess in court tomorrow and gives Abby time to formulate a plan on how to handle the event. If this scene had not been written or introduced to the public, Abby would have been seen as a smarter person because the audience would have been completely unaware that she had time to plan her actions. By removing this scene, the audience sees how Abby has manipulated the consensus using her sly, quick reactions to the claims by people who say that she has been lying the whole time.

[caseyr7]

Act II, Scene 2 goes into detail of Abigail's and Proctor's affair and relationship. I believe Miller's intent in cutting out this scene was to distance the content of the Crucible from the underlying consequences of the personal affair throughout the play and shift the focus onto his original political purpose.